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Comment mass in motion (Score 4, Interesting) 262

The big factor is mass. To store energy you need to spin up and down the mass. However to drive in general you want to carry less mass on the vehicle.

Factor #1: A more massive flywheel can store more energy at slower spin rates.
Factor #2: A more massive flywheel is going to be more of a load in general driving.

The optimium point of flywheel mass is going to depend on driving conditions. Really you should have at least 2 interchangeable fly wheels that you physically replace in the vehicle. One flywheel for city driving one for highway driving.

Factor #3: A spinning flywheel is one hell of an energy store. Having a stopped vehichle with a fully spun up flywheel hit could release the spinning flywheel to the detriment of pedestrians in the neighborhood.
Factor #4: Starting from a stop and attempting to corner, left or right, having a spinning flywheel is going to do gyroscopic things to the vehicle.

There are all sorts of tradeoffs and safety considerations here.

Comment Re:History Lesson:German occupation of Czechoslova (Score 3, Insightful) 551

Unfortunately we are in the very dangerous point of really needing lots of people to die to stop Putin. I am sure he knows this and knows that until he encounters a country
a) willing to commit to the loss of lives
and
b) expecting to be able to "win" should a) occur
Putin is going to be able to do whatever he wants.

After the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistian it is clear that the west is highly resistant to (a) and is uncertain if (b) is even possible. With those massive levels of innertia Putin is going to be able to march all over the Ukraine and likely several other "Soviet" regions as well.

Comment History Lesson:German occupation of Czechoslovakia (Score 5, Insightful) 551

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
At the time Germay was "reoccupying land dominated by Germans". The League of Nations stood by and actually there were negotiated terms, the Munich Accord which spelled out what would happen.

However, Germany was emboldened by the success of expansion. And the occupation was far from the end of the aggression.

Comment Cut Them, Not Me (Score 1) 676

And if you talk to anyone it will be "Cut their benefits. Don't touch mine".

Deductible mortgages, supplement this, old age that, infrastructure projects, pork projects, transport, farm, pretty much everyone gets multiple handouts of one form or another.

If you want to open the can of worms go ahead, but it generally is worse than the hydra that grows back heads for everyone cut off.

Comment Re:Radioshack's main problem... structure (Score 2, Interesting) 423

They should have changed their business model to match their business setup
#1 order on line for parts
#2 pickup in store using their existing delivery network to "ship for free"
They could have had 1 week delivery. Essentially 1 or 2 days for most places near a distribution center. They had weekly or 2x weekly shipments.

Rather than a limited in store inventory. That
a) frees up store space
b) reduced individual store inventory
c) gets a much wider array of parts
d) drives foot traffic

Comment Security is Job #1 (Score 1) 704

The data penetration market is currently very involved and you need very good security, on all three levels, electronic, physical and personnel to keep data secure. I think the lure of the bitcoin profit was too easy for new people to enter.

So people set up these multi-million dollar value exchange/vaults without security as thought ONE. I think this is more a testament to the cowboy free range nature of the bit coin market when faced with organized criminal hacker cultures.

Comment What do you mean by web devlopment? (Score 1) 246

#1 Do you mean planning and implementing a sever base? From customer requirements, backup provisioning, security and obselecense planning, servicing and reliability infractructure ....
#2 Do you mean using a MS based GUI to stuff a toolkit based web site onto a cloud service server?

There are several worlds of difference between #1 and #2.

Comment Bad logic (Score 1) 235

If they need a warrant for something, but they can't tell the judge because of an NDA then they can't do anything.
Because the NDA says they can't tell the judge does not mean they get to bypass the Judge, it means they can't get the warrant and they can't do the investigation.

It means saying to the manufacturer, "We would really like to use your device but we need to get the judges permission, either you modify the NDA or we can't use your device."

The cops are in the wrong here. The manufacturer is stupid but it is the cops that went along with it and violated the law.
The courts are at fault though for letting the cops get away with it.

Comment genetic contributor - not parent (Score 1) 146

It really should be not a parent but a genetic information contributor. If it is parent they have an extra target for child support.

However if they do make it parent then I want my probiotic yogurt maker listed as my parent and years of support payments. I am linking the bacteria are a large part of our component body to this notion that a supplier of genetic materials becomes financially liable for care.

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